Underneath it All
by Witch Baby Nikki
Summary: Zell remembers a girl from his past but cant seem to remember her name.When he meets up with Nikki Nagashima,she begins to unlock the lost memories from his past.*R in later chaps, Ch 3 up!*
1. Forgotten Memories

A/N: Hi! This fic is about my fav FF8 char of all time, Zell! This fic is kinda of a rip off of Love Hina, only because of Zell searching for some girl form his past. The title doesn't really tell anything about the story just yet, and no, this is not gonna be an NC-17 fic, you perv bunnies. I am also welcoming any chapters or chapter ideas to be added to this fic! So if u can, send any ideas to:rinoa_rulz@hotmail.com Thank You! FYI, I'm kinda new at writing fics so be nice when u review plz!  
  
Disclaimer: I dun own FF8 or the concept of Love Hina. But all of my chars are obviously mine!  
  
Text Legend:  
  
~*~ Flashback ~*~  
  
' Thought'  
  
" Speaking"  
  
Later in the story you will notice it sounds like someone's talking but there are no quotation marks, this means they're speaking a different language. (Yes, I stole this idea from the book 'A Step from Heaven')  
  
Diary Entry/ Voice Over ~~ ^ ^ ~~ ^ ^ ~~  
  
Underneath It All  
  
By: Witch Baby (a.k.a. rInOa_HeArTiLlY)  
  
Chapter 1: Forgotten Memories  
  
~*~ It was another gloomy, cloudy afternoon at the orphanage. 4 year old Zell and 5 year old Seifer had gotten into another fight again and Zell ran outside to hide from everyone. Zell ran to the rocky cliff near the sea (he called this his 'secret spot'). But when Zell got there he was surprised to find another child there.  
  
"Hi!" Zell said, as he ran up the cliff. The other child whirled around and gasped. The child was a young girl with long black hair and slanted purple eyes; she was wearing a long black trench coat buttoned up to the top and black cowboy boots. "Um.H-hello." the girl said quietly, looking down at her boots. She then turned to leave. "I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone was here. I'll just leave now." Zell grabbed her hand." Wait a sec!" he said "My names Zell! What yours?" The girl turned to him and smiled. " My name is."~*~  
  
(A/N: When that happens it means there is a flash of light and it goes to the present or to another flashback. It usually means they don't remember that part of the memory, or they have a minor flashback.)  
  
~*~ "Where do you live, Mikan?" Zell asked as he and Mikan walked on the beach. "Esthar" she replied. "Hmmm.never heard of it. Is it far away?" Zell was obviously curious about the world outside of the orphanage. "Kinda, sorta." She said. "Have you ever been anywhere outside of the orphanage Zell?" she asked looking at him with worry in her eyes. "Nope. But one day, I'm gonna see the whole world in one day!" he stretched out his arms. She smiled at him, "One day Zell, I'll take you to the see the world with me! We'll go together.!"~*~  
  
~*~ "What's it like Mikan?" Zell asked one night. He and Mikan were sittings on the edge of the sea side cliff eating Fig Newtons. "What's what like?" she asked as she munched on another Fig Newton. "What's it like to have parents?" Mikan stared off into the starry sky. "Well, my mom is really nice, but shes never really around much anymore." She started fidgeting "but my daddy, hes really mean to her. Sometimes he even hits her." "Does she cry?" Zell asked "Sometimes."~*~  
  
~*~ After finding out a little bit more of Mikan, Zell became more closer with her. Zell and Mikan were like 2 peas in a pod. They went together like PB&J. they were inseparable. Their usual hangouts included the sea side cliff, the beach, the lighthouse, and flower field. One day Mikan and Zell were playing there (the flower field); they were pulling the flowers and tearing off the petals. "Zell, have you ever heard of the Secret Garden?" Mikan asked as she pulled another flower off the ground. "No, whats that?" Zell was tearing up flowers here and there. "Its this place in Esthar where 2 people go if they love each other and if they say they say how much they love one another there, they live happily ever after" She explained. Zell stopped throwing flowers and looked at her. Their eyes met. Her purple eyes looked deeply into his blue eyes. A gentle breeze blew, making Mikan's hair fly across her face. 'Shes really pretty' Zell thought. Mikan then took his pinky. Zell looked at her in confusion. "It's a pinky promise Zell!" she said "Promise me we'll go there one day Zell." she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. They both blushed. Mikan smiled "Promise!" Zell smirked. "I promise!" he yelled ~*~  
  
~*~ The next couple of days, Mikan never came over to play with Zell. He waited and waited and waited, all day, sun up to sun down. But she never came. Life for young Zell went on as it did before he met Mikan, he and Seifer were fighting again, he was always last for lunch, he kept getting in trouble. Yes, life was back to normal. But, for some reason.he wasn't happy.  
  
Then one day, Mikan showed up. But she wasn't wearing her happy go lucky expression as she always has. Zell asked her what was wrong. She said she had to leave. He begged her not to go. But all she said was: "promise me." The rest is a blur in my mind.~*~  
  
Zell lay awake in his bed staring at the ceiling. ' That was the only girl that ever really liked me.' He thought. 'How sad. I can't even remember her real name. Only her nick name.'  
  
Zell never had a girlfriend, and at the age of 19, you could say that's pretty pathetic. It wasn't really his fault that he never had one. It's just that the girls wanted someone that he wasn't: a label, a pretty boy. He just wanted some one to like him for who he is. But unfortunately, no girl was looking for an aggressive, punk rock loving, trouble making no body. Ever since Ultimecia's defeat, hes lost his ultra happy personality. Hes been depressed because almost everyone paired up with one another after that and he was left all alone. Maybe it's his destiny to be alone? Nah.After all nobody deserves to be alone. Nobody.  
  
Short Chap! So, who is this girl from Zell's past? Will Zell ever get a Girlfriend? Will I ever have enough time to at least TRY to finish this fic?! Find out next time on Underneath it All: Slanted Purple Eyes: Witch Baby.  
  
-Witch Baby 6/30/02 (mm/dd/yy) 


	2. Purple Slanted Eyes:Witch Baby

Disclaimer: I dun own FF8! I only own my original chars! So dun sue plz!  
  
A/N: WOW! 2 months since I've written the first chap! So sorry everyone! Anyways, I've finally found time this weekend to write some stuff. The first POV is of my own char, Nikki, just so none of you get confused at the beginning of this chap. This is really just an intro to Nikki and her weirdo friends so its not a REAL chapter, ya kno? I'll probably get this chapter done tonight and half of the next tomorrow. Sorry again!  
  
  
  
Underneath it All Chapter 2: Purple, Slanted Eyes: Witch Baby ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A loud buzzing noise erupted from behind my head. I lazily reached back behind me and felt my way around for the black alarm clock. I found it and raised it closely to my face, since I couldn't see because I didn't have my contacts in and I still had sleepy eyes. The bright, neon numbers read "8:45". Omigosh! I quickly darted out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I took off my clothes, turned on the shower, and jumped in.... Eeep! I flew against the shower wall. It was WAY too cold! After my cold shower, I wrapped my self in a towel and when to my dresser. I opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a black bra and underwear, a black Hurley ® shirt and black baggy pants. I quickly got dressed, put on my sneakers and bolted out of the door.  
  
I ran down the hallways, not paying attention to the blurred images in front of me, I thought I still had morning gunk in my eyes. I rubbed her eyes while running, but no matter how hard I rubbed the blurry images wouldn't go away. 'Dammit! I forgot my contacts again! That's the 3rd time this week! And it only Wednesday!' I thought as I continued racing down the corridors. After about 10 minutes of running, I finally reached the lobby. I squinted my eyes and looked around. I saw a blob like thing near the fountain. That must be them. I hurried over there.  
  
I reached my friends that had been waiting for me at the fountain; I doubled over trying to catch my breath. "Geez, Witch Baby. Can you be anymore late?" A tall, brown haired girl with an English accent asked, standing over me glancing at her watch. "S-Shut.up.. Delta." I said, in between breaths. "Haha. Nice hair, Witch Baby!" a short, black haired girl with long pigtails giggled, handing me a brush. "You look like a Theresa ® doll on crack!" "Come on, Prima. My hair doesn't look that bad!" I argued, looking down on her. "Oh yea? Go look for yourself." She pointed to the fountain. I leaned my head over the railing to look at my reflection. Ugh.. She was right. I did look horrible. I put my hands on my head. My black hair was matted with tons of tangles and the bags underneath my eyes did not go well against my pale skin. Now that I mention it, there was one other feature of mine that didn't go well with anything either, my slanted purple eyes. I hated them! Why did I have to be half-Chinese and half- Japanese?! Why?! I sighed and took the brush from Prima's small hand. I violently brushed my hair, making it staticy.  
  
After I had smoothed out all of the tangles, I patted it down so that there would be less static. I looked over the railing at my reflection again. I saw myself as I did everyday in this stupid school: shoulder blade length hair, pale skin, and dark bags under my purple eyes. I saw the girl that everybody thought was perfect. The girl that she saw as hideous. A cold splash of water on my face interrupted my thoughts. I shrieked and put my hands up to my face to block any more water that may come at me. A loud, deep laugh followed soon after that, and I knew exactly who it was. I took my hands away from my face and looked at the person. "Hahahaha! You better wipe that water outta your face, eh Nikki?" The boy was 6" 2' tall, spiky blonde hair, (A/N: No, this is not Zell!) and an English accent. I wiped the water off with my arm and curled my hands into fists. "Arashi! That's not funny!" I yelled. He raised his hand up. "Sorry! Sorry! Dun go all "Mommy Dearest" in me now! (a/n: for some strange reason, that's all my family talks about now.hmm!)" "Geez! You guys are still talking about that?" Delta asked. "Grrr, Arashi's the one that always brings it up!" I said, pointing a finger in his direction. "Well, yea dats true but I'm not the one that freaks out over a lil' water!" he yelled. "Boy, don't make me get out the wire hangers!" He scowled "You would dare." He said in a low whisper. "Watch me!"  
  
Arashi and I always had fights like this but we never meant any of the stuff we said. But, if you wanna see REAL arguing you should see me go at it with that conniving, sly, sneaky, pathetic, snobby, little whore.. "Oh, Nina Bruja!" a shrill Mexican voice filled the air as a tall, tanned skinned, fake blonde haired, slender girl walked up to me. ".Sae. I was just thinking of you." I smirked. "Oh, isn't that sweet, Brujita!" Sae said, raising her hand to her face. I sighed. "Look Sae, if you don't mind, me, Delta, Prima, and Arashi are waiting for the SeeDs from Balamb to arrive, so can you please just tell me what you want?" She scowled, her red lips twisted into an ugly sneer. "As a matter of fact, I do mind, Lil' Brujita!" She lunged her head forward; mere inches away from my face "If fact, I mind SO much that when the SeeDs get here you and I will have a freestyle battle, so that everyone can see what a superior warrior I am!" "Wait a minute," I said, "what are you thinking Sae? A battle in front of the SeeDs?! Hel-lo! Anyone home in that brain of yours? We are trying to get them to help Esthar in case of an emergency enemy attack otherwise. WE'RE TOAST!!!" Sae put hand on her hip. "Yea, I know. But, I hear they're gonna pick the strongest warriors from our school, Esthar International A.N.G.E.L. University, to fight with them." She smiled a wicked smile and ran her tongue on her lips. "And let me tell you, Nagashima. You're going DOWN!" She then threw her head back and laughed her incredibly annoying laugh, turned around and marched off. God, how I hated it here! But I guess that's my life. Beggars really can't be choosers. This was my life. The life of Nikki Mikan Nagashima.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Oh.. my.. GOD THIS CHAP SUCKED!!! Here's the reason why it ended up so crappy: I wrote the first half earlier this evening then my sisters and I when to this jam session and stayed there for like 3 hours. I was really tired so we went home, I remembered I had to finish this, so I really rushed at the end. Sorry it sucked! I promise the next will be better!  
  
--Witch Baby 10/5/02 


	3. Classroom Behavior:ANGEL

A/N: I'm so sad! No one reviewed my last chapter! Please review this one! I also changed the name of the chap, because this became long and I dun want to continue any more!  
  
  
  
Underneath it All Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior: ANGEL (Nikki's POV) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A loud three beat bell told us it was time to get to class. "We gotta get going guys," Delta said, holding on to the top of Prima's head "Dobuita-San will get mad at us if we're late to homeroom again. See ya!" Arashi turned to them and waved bye then turned to go to his class. He stuck his hand in the air and started walking away "See ya later, Nikki" he quickly turned around "Oh yea I almost forgot" He took off the black leather jacket he was wearing and threw it to me, I caught it and looked at it in my hands. "Thanks for lettin' me borrow it! See ya at 2nd period!" he walked away. I sat silently by myself on the railing of the fountain with my jacket in my hands. I looked at it and ran my finger across the shiny material. I sighed. What am I doing? I'm going to be late. I got up and put the jacket on. The jacket was obviously too big for me. The sleeves almost completely covered up my hands and the bottom of the jacket was at my knees, but I still loved it. I pushed stray strands of hair out of my eyes and proceeded to walk to my class.  
  
The second bell rang. Late. Oh well, its not like this hasn't happened before. I walked down the bright, long corridors and reached my classroom. There was a group of unfamiliar people standing by the door. Were they new students? Were they late, lost, what? Nevermind, I don't have time to think about stupid things like this. I pushed my way pass with some "Excuse me"s and "Pardon me"s and walked through the door and found my seat. I sat down and waited patiently listening to the class whisper and giggle about who likes who, whats on the written combat exam, why I'm late again. The familiar clack of high heels came from the door "Ohayo, minna-san!" the bright cheery voice of a tall, brown haired woman filled the air as the class mearly mumbled an unenthusiastic "Ohayo, Maeda-sensei..." I said nothing. She noticed this and looked my way. She smiled her pink lipstick smile and said "Guten Morgen, Nikki" I replied with a solemn "Guten Morgen, Maeda-sempai." A small gasp came from the door "Isn't she supposed to direct you as sensei?" A girl with green eyes, brown hair that curled at the bottom and a yellow jumper asked timidly as she held on the doorframe. Ms. Maeda only smiled "Nikki is an exception. Since her family has traveled to many countries and her step mother is German, she has different views with teachers and elders." A smile of discovery flashed on the green-eyed girl's face "Ooooh!" Once again the room filled with chatter and giggles as Maeda-sempai quietly cleared her table for the next teacher coming in. The bell rang and most of the students squeaked out of their seats and headed out the door. I better get to my 2nd period seat. I got out of my seat and sat on the far left of the class. Maeda-sempai grabbed her briefcase and wave goodbye as she walked out the door. A small number of stud0ents entered the room and took their seats next to each other. Luckily, for me all my friends were in this class. But so was Sae.. Delta and Arashi sat together in the front row, Sae sat by herself in the middle and Prima sat way in the back alone. We all sat in silence as Ishida-sempai and the group of people that was outside walked in. We never took our eyes off them as they stood at the front of the room. Were these the SeeDs? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
(Zell's POV)  
  
This was awkward. They were all looking at us with their blue, brown, green and even purple eyes. Huh? Wait a minute.. Purple? Didn't Mikan have.? "Attention class, attention." A tall blond, unshaved man stood at the front of the class wearing a power blue collared shirt and black pants. He introduced himself as Mr. Ishida to us. "Ohayo Minna-san and Guten Morgen to you Nagashima-san" he said as he wrote on the white board something in Japanese. The gang and I stood quietly in the front. I looked around and saw that nobody looked as nervous as I must be. Squall was leaning against the board while Rinoa wrapped her arms around his waist, Quistis was reading one of the textbooks on the shelf on the far side of the room, Selphie was humming as she rocked side to side, and Irvine was flirting with the girl in the middle of the classroom. I stood there staring at the back of the room, but I could feel the cold, hard stare of the girl on the far side of the room with her exotic purple eyes.  
  
The teacher started talking but wasn't paying attention. I tried to calm down but nothing was working. So I decided to do what I always did when I couldn't do anything else, I started shadow boxing. I heard some gasps of amazement and some stifled giggles from the students. As I was about to execute an uppercut I felt something hard hit me on the head. I stumbled forward holding on to my head and quickly turned around yelling an angry "Yo!" A bust of laughter shook the classroom, some from the students some form the gang. Mr. Ishida stood in front of me holding a thick wooden ruler in his right hand and calmly said, "Get back to your spot, Mr. Dincht..." Embarrassed, I took my place once more in front of the white board. I scratched the back of my head and looked at the class, they were nearly doubling over in laughter except... the girl with the purple eyes. She stood perfectly still, hands folded politely in front of her, back straight, lips pursed, and eyes stuck in an unreadable form of any expression. She was strange...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ (Nikki's POV)  
  
I didn't get it. What was so funny about that? Ishida-sempai does that to everybody. I lowered my face. These people were weird. "Now, would anyone want to guess who these nice people are?" Ishida said, as he walked back and forth at the front of the room. Sae raised her hand in a strangely confident manner. "Sae?" She smirked "Well, its pretty obvious sensei. These lovely people are the wonderfully, delightful SeeDs!" I gagged. She was kissing up again! I hated when she did that. "Nagashima, would you mind explaining what the SeeDs are and where they came from?" Ishida said as he walked in front of my desk. "Actually, Sempai, I t would be my pleasure." I said as I stood up in place. "The SeeDs are a mercenary force from Balamb that fights against the soceresses and other magic weilding bad guys and is a small division of the A.N.G.E.L. University here in Eshtar." I then took my seat. "Now may I ask you a question sempai?" I asked titling my head to the side. "Sure. Ask away." "Why do you always call me by my surname? I have a first name too ya kno?" I asked, giving a pouty looking face. A few giggles arose from Prima in the back. It was pretty obvious Ishida hated me. Ever since I told Maeda that he was secretly in love with her 2 years ago, hes always had it in for me. He glared down at me. "Get up Nagashima," I rose from my seat "now, if you will, please tell the SeeDs exactly what the ANGEL University is for?" I sighed "ANGEL University is more like a combat school than a real school. It was built to teach us the fundamentals of battle and justice. ANGEL stands for Affiliated Nation's Godwilled Elite Leaders. ANGEL first began 50 years ago when a freak accident at Hasegawa Memorial Experimental Lab cased the Genomes to break out of their bio- chambers. Now they had to be stopped quickly, for they were traveling at high speeds and invading other countries. So for the first time, all of the nations got together and recruited their strongest warriors and retreanined to do combat with the genomes. The ANGELS quickly won the battle and were then stations to many other parts of the world, there they would set out for their missions of the day to protect the country. That is the story of how ANGEL started... The End!"  
  
I quickly sat down and hit my head on the desk. A single person started clapping vigirously at the front of the room. I lifted my head. "Yea! Go ANGELS! Whoo-hoo!" It was that brown haired girl with the yellow jumper. She was jumping up and down in the air cheering about the ANGELs. It took then about five minutes to get her to calm down. Ishida sat at his desk in the front of the room (A/N: AHHH! Why does everybody have to be at the front of the damn room! Nammit!{no dat aint no typo! Nammit all!}) " Now settle down everyone! The SeeDs are here to train for any upcoming battles and are going to end up living here for a while." Excited gasps came from Arashi, Delta and Prima. A sly smiled played on Sae's lips. "That why I am giving them partners, a.k.a. you guys, to live with them," he continued " The following partners are as follows: Nagashima you're with Zell Dincht..."  
  
Zell.!?  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
This was kinda better than the last one1 Kinda.. Took me 3 day to finish! Whoo! Happy Haunts everyone!  
  
-------Witch Baby*** 


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